Monitoring of activity to ensure laws are abided by, such as protecting private property from trespassers or policing proper use of natural resources, at remote sites can be manpower-intensive. Having an enforcement officer present at the appropriate time and place to prevent, recognize, and cite an infraction is unlikely for many reasons. For example, to place a conservation officer or security guard at an access point to monitor lawful access to land and appropriate usage of resources would require at least $120,000 per year per location, and local governments and private organizations or landowners simply do not have the financial and other necessary resources to staff their remote sites around-the-clock. Also, it is generally understood that lawfulness of conduct is greatly affected by the presence or absence of an enforcement officer. Thus, in the usual instance when an enforcement officer is absent, unlawful activity is much more likely to take place and go un-checked. The use of volunteers or interns in lieu of enforcement officers is often ineffective as a deterrent to unlawful activity as the volunteers and interns lack the authority to issue citations to infractions.
In order to capture usage activities occurring in remote locations and notify authorized personnel for enforcement actions against improper use, an unmanned, low maintenance system for capturing activities when they occur is desirable. Capturing video images may provide the added benefit of evidence if there is to be enforcement sought such as criminal prosecution or civil remedies. Video camera technology for safety and security monitoring is well-known and widely deployed. Common applications include protecting premises, personal safety, traffic management and rule enforcement. For example, typical traffic monitoring systems are directed to identifying congestion, speeding or red-light running instances. These systems utilize outdoor cameras to remotely capture still image or continuous video sequences, which are subsequently analyzed at special monitoring centers manned 24 hours a day by dedicated personnel. Certain applications are known in which multiple cameras are deployed that are automatically monitored by locally-housed computer systems that can select specific video sequences for transfer to a centralized monitoring center.
Conventional video monitoring systems generally enjoy the advantages of having an AC mains power supply and communications connectivity that can enable the user to select full-function video camera features and functionality (e.g. pan, tilt, zoom, high-definition CCD image sensing, or locally-housed image storage). Typically, mounting locations for video monitoring cameras are selected to be physically inaccessible to the public (such as at elevated points) or at places where pedestrian access is prohibited (such as at parking ramp exists). The general area of deployment tends to be around population centers where there is existing mounting structures, abundant electrical power, and communications infrastructure. These types of technologies are not well-suited to monitoring remote locations, such as in rural outdoor sites in which electrical power and communications infrastructure is not present or readily accessible.
For instance, conventional video cameras have significant power requirements such that mains power is necessary at the camera locations. Moreover, conventional network-accessible cameras require a readily available broadband networking capability to communicate. For remote deployment, providing power and communications infrastructure is impracticable. Conventional solutions for protecting the remote-mounted cameras from vandalism, such as mounting the cameras 18 feet or more above the ground is costly without the ability to use existing structures and wiring. Deploying these systems at or near ground level (for example, such that the camera is between 1 and 5 feet from an elevation of a road or trail) or in remote locations to capture infractions only viewable near the ground would quickly render damage to these systems by those individuals whose activity is to be captured at a location where there are no other personnel in the vicinity. Also, conventional camera housings are typically not hardened to the area of deployment. A person with malicious intent could fairly easily dispatch a conventional camera with a shot from a rifle.
The use of hidden or unobtrusively-placed video cameras limits the camera's ability to capture critical identifying information about the subject being monitored, such as a license plate number or boat registration ID. Moreover, hidden cameras do not provide a deterrent effect for unlawful behavior, which is desirable in some cases.
Remote location video monitoring systems presently exist that selectively capture still images or video sequences in response to a certain sensed event. One type of event-triggered system is the intersection infraction camera systems deployed in many cities. The intersection infraction (i.e. red light running) cameras can utilize various sensing mechanisms to detect the presence of a vehicle in an intersection. One type of well-known sensing technology is an induction-type sensor in which a magnetic field is generated by under-street magnetic radiating antenna stimulating signal generator coupled thereto. When a vehicle passes through the radiated magnetic field, the voltage induced in the loop by the magnetic field changes, and this change is detected by sensing circuitry. Another type of sensing technology involves the use of radar or laser instruments such as those used for measuring the speed of vehicles. Other mechanisms for detecting an intersection infraction involves taking continuous video and analyzing the images in the video to detect the presence of a vehicle at certain times. All of these types of sensing technologies involve emitting relatively high-energy signals or operating the monitoring system continuously for video capture and processing. As described above, due to the lack of power infrastructure, these triggering technologies are not suited for remote non-urban outdoor site monitoring.
Infra-red (IR) motion detectors for use in triggering remote video monitoring cameras are known. These types of motion detectors are generally low-power and respond to detected movement of people and animals in addition to the movement of certain vehicles. However, IR motion detectors cannot specifically distinguish vehicles from animals. Therefore, IR motion detectors are not well suited for detecting activities involving vehicles while ignoring other types of activities. IR motion detectors also require a visual line-of-sight to the monitored site. This requirement adds significant design and cost constraints. It is also quite difficult to use IR sensors and protect them from environmental and vandalism damages.
To date, a practical solution for remote video monitoring of non-urban outdoor sites for specific activities has not been proposed. In view of the limitations of existing video monitoring technologies described above, as well as other related limitations, the existing remote video monitoring technologies are not readily adaptable to such applications.